All To Hold
by Ispreno
Summary: OC ALERT! The reaction between the two spells had sent Aea sprawling into the middle of the last couple of decades. Now she finds herself thrust amidst a conspiracy that could very well change the Future as she knows it. Please R&R!


**All to Hold **

by Amelia (Ispreno)

**---**

**Summary**

OC Alert! The reaction caused by the Meteor spell and the one they'd left brewing in the laboratory had sent Aea sprawling into the middle of the last couple of decades. She desperately wants to get back, but circumstances complicate matters and she finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy that could very well change the Future as she knows it. Usual pairings – I won't mess with the characters, don't worry.

**Disclaimer**

All Final Fantasy VIII characters are property of Square Enix (Squaresoft) and I lay no claim to them. I don't own anything beyond the plot and the characters I've created.

**Author's Note**

I thought to say this before I actually go into my actual story. I know some people dislike Original Characters (OCs) because they usually turn out kinda Mary-Sueish. I perfectly understand, and I dislike it as well. In my earlier stories, some of my characters were a just little short of being named Mary Sue, but I sincerely have tried to make, to the best of my ability, my OCs as un-Mary-Sueish as possible. They may possess certain powers, but be rest assured that they are unable to take down multiple armies with one finger. Whatever Squall and company and do, they can do, so I hope that settles that.

One more issue is, I know how sometimes, OCs are used so that the authors can make their favourite characters end up with 'themselves' in a weird, twisted sort of way. My OCs are going to end up with each other, and nobody else. Squall will still be with Rinoa, Irvine with Selphie, etcetera. I am also a Seifer/Quistis fan, so no points for guessing with whom they end up with. That said, all I will be using is the world of Final Fantasy VIII and the characters within it. I will try to preserve the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the characters to the best of my ability. That is the promise that I give.

That said, on with the story! Do read and review! I would very much appreciate the help. Also, please let me know what you may have thought about what I've posted here. It would really give me a chance to write something that both I, as a writer, and you, as my readers, will like!

**---**

Chapter One

It had been more than two decades since Ultimecia initiated the turn of events that eventually led to her downfall, but nothing much had changed since then. At least that was what it seemed, on the surface.

Cities still prospered, the way they did, the way they ever could do if they were led right. And it seemed like they were, judging from the standard of living, which had risen quite a fair bit since the last couple of decades. It was enough testimony for most people, that they were being led by a wise and discerning ruler, despite the fact that wars were still being waged, and people were still dying on the battlefields. Why would they bother, anyhow? As long as their bellies were full and they had somewhere warm to sleep in, who really wanted to care about wars that did not concern them?

In the Dukedom of Dollet, the usual hustle and bustle was still there. Everyone went about their business as usual, but there was no concealing the fact that everyone was being extra careful about what they said and did. It was the atmosphere that betrayed them all – a tense, dreary, even eerie, sense of foreboding that seemed to hang over the residents.

"Mama? Why are there those big men holding guns standing everywhere? Why does everyone seem so… distracted?" A girl, who couldn't be more than twelve, tugged on the sleeve of her mother's blouse as she whispered the words. The older woman looked down at her daughter, her mouth twisting grimly as she contemplated how she should answer her questions.

Dervon's troops had been stationed in the town since the day before, two days after Dollet's ArchDuke refused to deliver the town over to Dervon's hands. The military presence was causing all sorts of things to happen. Unrest among the people, for one. Of course, that was undoubtedly the plan in the first place. Create unrest among the people, so that the people would begin to add pressure to its leadership to submit the town to Dervon's supremacy. After all what had they to lose? The nation of Dervon was a strong country, and being part of it would help Dollet to be strengthened as well. Never mind that its ruler was a ruthless man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted (the numerous battles waged against unrelenting cities were enough proof of that), the people wanted peace. They needed the peace. And they were all just weary.

Weary of all the politics and strife and the rest of it. Was it too much to ask to live a normal, happy life?

But she couldn't tell her daughter that. She couldn't tell her what was happening. Couldn't tell her that the reason the soldiers were here was because the Dervon politicians, in particular that Lonal Cassady fella, just could not decide what the fuck they wanted to do with their time. One wrong word, and her daughter would just disappear, right off the face of the earth. That was how things worked nowadays, whether they liked it or not.

And it was all their fault. All their damned fault that this was happening. If only he was still around. If only SeeD were still around. If only the Gardens still existed.

She still remembered the times when she still had him with her… the times when her little girl's father was still with them. She'd fallen in love with his SeeD uniform first, then the rest of him. And he had always been by her side, except when he was called away for missions. Now he was no longer, and she didn't know who to hate – the organisation that made him who he was, or the people who killed him.

"I'm sure everyone is just distracted because there's a lot on their minds, sweetheart. And as for those soldiers… They're just helping to keep the town safe, dear," Shaking herself from her trance, the woman spoke as she looked down kindly at her daughter, who seemed gladdened by her words.

Bounding over to a Dervon soldier standing by a road junction, the little girl tilted her head up and gave the man the most grateful smile she could muster, just as the forced grin slid off the woman's face.

**---**

Glittering specks of magic residue sparkled in the dry, still air of the laboratory as a tall, well-built figure peered into the lens of a high-powered microscope on the laboratory countertop. He did not even flinch as loud noises echoed outside in the corridor, continuing to look with interest at whatever was lying beneath the magnifying power of the device.

The noise continued, increasing in volume and frequency as the source of it approached the entrance to the lab. Still the man continued his work silently, occasionally pausing to type at a sleek silver laptop on the neighbouring bench.

His fingers flew over the keys of keyboard noiselessly as the beakers and metal canisters on the bench began to rattle and shake. The shelves lining the walls of the laboratory, thankfully, along with what looked like flasks and flasks of pale shiny gases on the shelves, remained still, possibly due to what seemed like stacks and stacks of books and research material leaning supporting them. The flasks were filled with gases in a myriad of colours, each giving off a muted sheen of their own as they pulsed within their glass prisons, looking as though they were living things. They seemed to have a life of their own, as one by one they pressed their shiny gaseous bodies against the cold hard glass of the flasks when he stepped close and let a caressing finger trail over the thin paper labels that differentiated one flask from the other.

Absent-mindedly picking a flask off the trembling shelf just as it was about to fall to an untimely demise, he replaced it further from the precarious edge just as a large crash sounded. The huge rumble that followed caused the titanium-enforced walls of the laboratory to shake fiercely and debris to fall from the high domed ceiling. This finally made the guy who was once so deeply engrossed in his work finally pause and look impatiently at the entrance.

"Aea," A voice that sounded dangerously soft seemed to make the room's temperature drop several notches as it sliced into the still silence of the room.

"Yeah?"

"I'm doing delicate work here."

The implication of those words was apparent, but even so, a moment's silence passed before anyone spoke again.

"It's always such messy business. You know I hate getting my hands dirty." A black-clothed figure whirled around in a swivel chair away from the dramatic view of the sunset shining through a full-length window made of reinforced glass. The orange light shining from behind threw the person into shadow, obscuring any facial expression.

The guy narrowed his eyes at that statement.

"You mustn't forget that this delicate work I'm doing is something that you _requested_ me to do. It's not going to take nicely to such" – a chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling, crashing onto a pile of books – "interruptions," He said, tapping a glass rod against a flask next to him on the countertop. The flask held yet another one of those swirly, multi-hued gases, and as he tapped the rod onto the glass, the gas trembled in sync with the sound as well.

"Though I guess," he adjusted the frameless glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose, "it's fine if you don't want to do it. I'm sure 'my pretty' standing guard out there will take care of him just fin—" His words were cut off abruptly by a loud, unearthly wail that lanced through the air, and which could only be construed as the apparent death of the 'my pretty' that he had mentioned just moments before.

He tensed up.

_Something that could bring down a Behemoth that easily..._

Turning to look at his companion, he saw confirmation of his hunch.

He turned an accusatory glare at the titanium-reinforced door, which was now repeatedly being thumped on, before throwing the rod he was holding onto the countertop, where it rolled a short distance before falling onto the floor, where it snapped cleanly in two. Reaching for the whip secured to his waist, he slanted a look at the reclining figure in the swivel chair. This was going to be inconvenient, they both knew.

"What, no help?"

Lips curved up in the slightest hint of a smile at his words, the figure rose from her seat.

Her?

Yes, it was a female. Even though her figure was hidden from view by a cloak she wore on her tall frame, the delicate features set within a heart-shaped face could never have been mistaken for a guy's. And of course, there was that mane of brown tresses that fell to her waist.

The long, thick eyelashes that framed eyes which pupils were hazel-brown fluttered coquettishly as their owner rounded the laboratory top to stand at the side of her companion. "It would seem that Lonal has discovered your new hiding place," She raised a hand to the light, as if examining the condition of her nails.

A strangled hiss issued from him by way of response.

"With your skills, Lonal could push Dervon to even take on Esthar. He needs you, if he intends to do that."

"As you would already have known, I have not the slightest interest in taking up his offer. He has enough renegade scientists from our side as it is. Not to mention, you know jolly well that you and I were brought up in Esthar."

As the last syllable fell from his lips, Ryn vaulted over the laboratory countertop and landed squarely on his feet next to the door. Tossing aside the cloak she wore, Aea did the same, drawing a white, gleaming blade from a case strapped across her back as her feet touched the ground. Her lean form was swathed in a sleek halter bodysuit that bared her shoulders and sheathed the entire length of her legs, resulting in a flattering silhouette that had Ryn sending an appreciative glance over. Feeling the heat of his eyes on her, Aea turned and pulled a face at him, before dissolving into laughter.

"If you were even the slightest bit interested, you would have joined him when that asshole came to power after his father died. And of course, we wouldn't be friends at all."

"We're friends?" He cocked an eyebrow at her words. "As I recall, you pushed that blade through Karst. My father."

_Or rather, 'father'._

"Oh right. I keep forgetting," she smirked as she twirled the blade around lazily with one hand, oblivious to the incessant thumping on the door, which looked like it was about to give way. "But that's not the point. Point is, we've been together for years, and you question if we're friends?"

Ryn let out a low chuckle as he studied her face. The laughter on her face was gone, replaced by a mock-angry look on her face that could not mask the tiredness beneath. They all were exhausted, fighting to stay alive in these post-Ultimecia times. Sure, the threat of her was long gone. Hell, no one even remembered what it was like those decades back. Sorceresses and knights were but legends in this day and age. Now there were simply normal humans to deal with. Scheming, lying rats that did more than what any sorceress could ever do, with their gutter politics that pervaded every inch of the earth.

"I've lived this long without you asking silly questions like that. You sure don't have to start now. Those guys outside, along with whatever animal they brought to kill my poor Behemoth are probably here for you more than anything else. Don't think my dear step-brother Lonal has forgotten about that slight yet."

It would take his brother decades to forget what Aea did with Karst's body as a well-aimed insult in Lonal's direction. A low blow, that's for sure, he couldn't blame her for that. No one could, once they understood where she was coming from.

"But they could be here for you, rather than me, no? Spell-fusion specialist."

His skill with spells was a great one, she knew, but he always downplayed the facts. In the last year she'd been with him, she'd seen just how much he could do with the libraries of spells he had in his numerous labs. Those spells, which he painstakingly obtained, condensed and then distilled into their pale, gaseous forms that he kept in the flasks lining the walls. He used these spells to weave new ones. That was what he learnt in those years he studied in Esthar's finest labs – to fuse those condensed spells to obtain new, more advanced spells. Much like spell refining, only taken to a much higher level.

She'd come to him for help. And he'd rendered it to her, all the time he spent trying to make what she needed. And she needed that spell. The soldiers over in Dollet were getting restless, and if the town were to be evacuated as soon as possible, she would seriously need that spell. A spell that would quite literally, _stop_ the Dervon army in its tracks. Lonal's attack on this lab would undoubtedly mean that their work would be halted, yet again. And those spells on the shelves… they just would have to dispose of them later. No point in having them fall into the hands of the enemy.

"Nah, it _has to be_ you. You're a SeeD, remember? That, and being connected to Esthar _in high places_. That's the cherry on the cake. I'm probably just the icing."

"Very funny. Whatever it is, how the hell did they track us this far? All the way out here on Estharian soil. I thought they'd given up since the last time Cid ordered a squad to take out the missile base in the mountainous terrain over in Balamb."

"As you can see from our circumstances at the moment, they haven't," he shot her a wry look, "Enough talking. Let's just put those Dervon scum to rest."

"I would say 'Just the two of us?' but I realize that besides the fact that we're the best there is, you finished a nice new spell just the other day. Pretty good timing, if I do say so myself," A smile flitted across her face, lighting it up momentarily.

"Let's go." With those words, Ryn pressed a hand to a sensor panel to the right of the doors, which were beginning to show signs of not holding up. In the split second that followed while the locking mechanisms in the doors disengaged, he glanced over at his companion, whose demeanor had completely changed. In the moments before, she'd been forthcoming, even chatty. But at this moment, as the two of them waited to face what was behind those doors, he saw her features slide into a smooth, blank and emotionless mask.

And as the doors swung unsteadily outwards to the spacious corridor, the two of them leapt forth.

Ryn knew instinctively that they had their work cut out for them the moment he glimpsed what was beyond those doors. Years of fighting alongside Aea took over, and he somehow knew that she was going to go for the soldiers, so he turned his attention towards the person that seemed to be spearheading the attack. It was a stocky middle-aged fella near the back of the squad who was calling the shots. Since it seemed as though he wasn't really going to come very willingly, Ryn decided to go to him.

Ryn's guess was spot-on -- Aea went for the soldiers first. She slashed them cleanly across their chests, the fierce blow opening huge gashes in the armour that failed to protect them. Weapons dropped from useless hands as the two bodies folded to the ground. The sight of their comrades going down seemed to shock the rest of the soldiers, who raised their arms and began to charge forward. Unfazed, Aea only smiled as she extended a hand out in front of her towards the advancing men, and whispered the word, "Fira".

The effects of the spell took effect at once. A hot tingling sensation began spreading from the nape of her neck, traveling upwards to suffuse her entire scalp with a scalding heat that bordered on white-hot pain. She flexed her fingers as the heat swept down through her casting arm. Tongues of flame appeared in her hand, and then, almost casually, Aea tossed the magic to the ground, and watched as the fire scorched burnt trails on the metal flooring to find their targets. The well-aimed Fira spell dispatched several men, and Aea whirled round, keen to take on her next attackers.

Stabbing the tip of the whip into the metal floor, Ryn raised himself off the ground as the metallic segments within it clicked into place and held. Balanced on the whip-turned-spear, he executed a deft scissors-movement with his legs, dealing twin blows to the two men advancing towards him. The men who bore the brunt of his attack collapsed to the ground, and the rest backed away fearfully.

"Forward! Kill them, I say!" In a frenzy, the leader of the troops yelled madly as he saw his men begin to lose morale, "Get them you bleddy idiots! If you don't, you know very well what will happen to you!" The man's threats seemed to work, for the soldiers who had inched away just moments before began to regroup and move forward towards the pair yet again.

"Go for the leader," Ryn muttered as Aea pressed her back to his, "Try not to fight him outside. I sensed the slight presence of a GF earlier. It would seem that this guy is of a much higher rank than we thought. With the additional space outside, he could very well summon the GF again. He can't do it in here if he doesn't want to kill off the rest of his troops."

As Ryn finished speaking, he started forward, but a soft hand that grasped his in a tight hold held him back. Turning, he looked into the smooth depths of hazel brown eyes.

They were in the throes of battle, and couldn't afford the distraction she was making right now, but Aea couldn't help it. She couldn't help it, and she didn't know why, even if her life depended on it. As she heard his voice, she just suddenly felt this huge chasm open within her – a foreboding feeling that she couldn't shake. She wasn't even sure if she'd heard all of the fast, frenzied speech that he had just made. All she could concentrate on was just the sound of his voice, as if willing it to imprint into her soul.

Why? Because she just felt. Just _knew_, that this was going to be the last time she would ever see him again, so in an impulse move, she'd grabbed his hand. She didn't want to let him go. The moment seemed to freeze as she roved over his face with hungry eyes, almost as if wanting to commit every inch of that perfect face into her memory.

"I…" She almost berated herself for having not realised it. Realise that in the year they had just spent together in the course of work, she had come to regard him as something more than a friend.

"Watch out!" Ryn shielded her body with his just as a shot fired from a pistol. She moved quickly, and caught him as he fell heavily against her. It took all her strength to hold him up, and she quickly propped him up against a wall as she took a defensive stance over him. In the few seconds she took to do it, she'd given him a once-over, and ascertained that except for a deep gash on his shoulder caused by a bullet that was shot by one of the soldiers, he was perfectly fine.

"Damn it, Ryn, I'm sorry," Aea said as she cast Protect. Her arms glowed briefly with a pink tinge as she held them out. The pink shields that promptly surrounded the both of them wavered as they came into existence, but held as bullets riddled the glistening protective surface. The soldiers had ditched the swords they were using before in favour of guns, which they were now using to shoot at the both of them repeatedly.

A white light flashed, and Aea felt Ryn get to his feet behind her.

"I'm fine. Nothing a Cura wouldn't heal. Pity about the shirt though." His words were meant to soothe her, and she let a small smile flicker across her face in acknowledgement. Turning her head to her right where he now stood, she noted that the gash on his shoulder was now nothing more than a pink welt, and mentally heaved a sigh of relief. The blood on the white shirt he wore, however, was a stark reminder of her lapse in concentration, and she gritted her teeth, willing herself to focus.

As the soldiers advanced on them, she instinctively turned her back to him, and he did the same.

_Now I've got your back, and you've got mine._

Delivering an uppercut to a soldier who had stepped too close, Ryn sent his whip slicing upwards through the air, putting several men out of action. Each fell to the ground screeching, grabbing an extremity which flesh had been cleanly opened by the blow of the blade-tipped whip.

"Now, Aea!" Upon hearing his shout, Aea backhanded a soldier with her hilt of her gunblade and took off at a run towards the troop leader. As though expecting her move, the stocky man hightailed his way up the flight of stairs that led to the surface, Aea hot on his heels.

Ryn's grip on his whip tightened when he saw Aea move above ground and out of his sight. He handled a couple of soldiers effectively with his whip and tried to go after her, but the men kept coming relentlessly at him.

The pink that surrounded her shimmered, and disappeared as Aea stepped out into the light of the dusk playing across the Estharian plains. She threw an arm over her face to shield her eyes from the sudden light. Her eyes hadn't even adjusted before she doubled over in pain as a bullet entered her hip.

_Fuck. I should have seen that Dispel coming._

The pain of the gunshot left Aea lying on the ground, her gunblade abandoned some distance in the dirt.

"Heh, look who ain't so cocky now eh?" A voice with a distinctly Galbadian accent rasped as the boots of its owner – the head of the soldiers – came into view from where Aea lay.

The man looked down at the young woman sprawled before him. It hadn't been quite so difficult, unlike what the _sorceress_ said. Even made him bring Cerberus, for what good the three-headed GF could have been. Yeah sure, she was a feisty one, but nothing he couldn't handle. Besides, he liked his women fiery. They were supposed to bring her in alive, but no one mentioned he couldn't have some fun with her before then.

Glimpsing a flash of white in a hand, the man moved swiftly and brought a heavy boot right down on her fingers.

_That hurt! But just as I thought._

"Trying to use a spell eh? Too bad I'm much to—" The man promptly lost his tongue as he suddenly found himself right smack in the middle of the Milky Way.

_Payback. Bastard._

He'd literally _stepped_ into her trap. She'd let him glimpse the Cura spell, knowing that he'd be sure to spot it. But it was what was in the other hand that was far more important – a Meteor spell. She'd always been ambidextrous, anyhow.

Using her gunblade to steady herself, Aea got to her feet, wincing as she unwittingly tugged at the wound at her side. The pain from the wound in her side and the momentary exhaustion that came with casting the high-level spell were making her see stars, and she gritted her teeth as she straightened. And gasped.

It wasn't the pain or the spell that was making her see stars. She was seeing them, for real. Just like being on the receiving end of a Meteor spell, except…

_Why is everything spinning…?_

That was the last thing on her mind as she blacked out.

**---**

Ryn's eyes widened as he felt the quality of air change around him. It couldn't be. No, it couldn't be! He whirled around as a bright orange light emanated from within the laboratory the same time a piercing white light lit the way where Aea had gone.

"Shell!" The word that fell from his lips was lost within the deafening roar as everything around him lit up, and died.


End file.
